Test Equipment.... The missing link

Perhaps you should do some market research before taking the plunge. There are quite a few products being sold on eBay based on the MK-328 or "AVR Transistor Tester" project: Manual: I believe that this is the original project site: It will test all the devices that you mention.

Maybe send one to Dave Jones of the eevblog.. he gets stuff and might review it. (It might be good to contact him first.) Are there other electronics/techie blogs?

George H.

Lots, but the best is "The Signal Path", for example:

Also good is Jack Ganssle:

Video of the $7 version from ebay:

Hard to compete with that. A curve tracer function would be a nice addition though.

It made me wonder, doesn't anyone make a ZIF socket with fewer than 14 pins?

Perhaps you should do some market research before taking the plunge. There are quite a few products being sold on eBay based on the MK-328 or "AVR Transistor Tester" project: Manual: I believe that this is the original project site: It will test all the devices that you mention.

-- Jeff Liebermann snipped-for-privacy@cruzio.com

Hi Jeff, thanks for your help. You are a candidate for a free unit. My tester sources +/- 1.00 m Amp +/-1%. with a voltage compliance of 24 Vdc. It will test zener diodes and LED strings to 24 V. MOSFETs can be tested for

Video of the $7 version from ebay:

Hard to compete with that. A curve tracer function would be a nice addition though.

It made me wonder, doesn't anyone make a ZIF socket with fewer than 14 pins?

Hi Tom, Agreed, but I would not have one of those testers in my lab. As far as LCR, there are so many testers that can do a better job. All except ESR to 1.00 m Ohm. That may be my next unit. When a MOSFET is blown, I run for my Semi-Analyzer and measure four FET parameters to 1 %. I have never encountered a bad FET passing this test. Another good use is deciding which diode dropped on the floor. A quick test comparing their forward voltage (to 1.0 m volt) will easily cull the devices. Thanks for your interest, Harry D

One variant is a plug-in wall wart transformer and a resistor; the readout is an oscilloscope. I use this with a Variac, it's handy.

But, that's not gonna plug in to 120VAC and do the same thing as on 240VAC downunder..

I love my Atlas DCA55 for that kind of thing. Have you used one? Sure it could always have more features (like an SMD probe), but it does a nice job of what it does.

Clifford Heath.

OK, TBH I don't watch/listen to many electronics videos, these days. I only can listen when doing some mundane task, like testing. And then there's so much good stuff out there to listen too. I haven't tried to add it up, but I have hundreds of hours of Dan Carlin still to go.

to the OP, from someone selling to a small market. Advertising is hard/ expensive. You first need to figure out who your market is. Then go show 'em what you got, sell some, word of mouth.. show some more, rinse and repeat. Oh and of course customer service... maybe our best 'advertising' A bipolar current source is nice. (why only 1 mA? Some opamp will do 20mA easy.) My other fav test tool is an opamp TIA, with a bunch of ranges.. (does your gizmo have a bunch of ranges?) Drive your DUT with a bench sig. gen. (tri. wave) and monitor current.

George H.

You could make your own promotional video on youtube. That way you don't have to worry about a reviewer reverse engineering it and revealing too much.

I love my Atlas DCA55 for that kind of thing. Have you used one? Sure it could always have more features (like an SMD probe), but it does a nice job of what it does.

Clifford Heath.

The DCA55 is a nice looking unit and I am trying to fill niches it cannot handle, such as 24V compliance. It states measuring MOSFET Vgs, which can be >4.0 Volts. I bet that unit cannot handle that high of a voltage. Thanks for your input. Harry D.

There are at least 2 hardware versions of the MK-328 and many firmware versions and mutations. Of course, I initially bought the oldest hardware and bugware. For example, this vendor has 9 different boards: but doesn't have anything with a color display and IR receiver:

That would require a pocket oscilloscope. One can probably build something around a Raspberry Pi 3 and the associated touch screen LCD display. or an Arduino board: Yet another project.

A picture is worth 1000 text searches: Nope, nothing found in 8 pin.

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Harry D wrote:

You could make your own promotional video on youtube. That way you=20 don't have to worry about a reviewer reverse engineering it and=20 revealing too much.

Tom, my saving grace my be this market nitch is too small for anyone = else trying to share it. Patents and copyrights are all BS.. Most in this group could design = this from a blank piece of paper. My design would probably be in the top 10 5%.

Thanks for your consideration. Harry D

It has a small 12v battery inside, so no, compliance is limited to around 9V total, I think.

I bought it after designing something similar, which I mentioned here and folk directed me to the Atlas. If you search back you'll find I started discussions about fast bi-polar current sources. I wanted +-24V compliance. I recall JT and Win were helpful.

"Fast" because I wanted to characterize capacitors and inductors up to say 500KHz. Anyhow, the DCA55 filled enough of this niche that I decided not to complete my project.

Clifford Heath.

Ummm... methinks you have sales and marketing mixed up. The purpose of marketing is to determine what needs to be designed, what features need to be included or dropped, who are the likely buyers, pricing and discount structure, how to sell, who's the competition, etc. Meanwhile sales determines how to actually sell the product, which is where bugging people has become an art form. The trick is to make the customer feel that they are being informed, educated and entertained, but not bugged, irritated, or pressured. All this while wearing a permanent smile.

Oversimplified, the purpose of marketing is to confuse the customer. The purpose of sales is to offer the customer the product as the solution to their confusion.

The Atlas DCA Pro (DCA75) has a built in curve tracer feature: It needs a PC to display the curves. I haven't played with the pro and do not have any experience with the curve tracer feature.

A slightly less cynical oversimplification is that marketing represents the customer's thoughts/desires to the company, sales represents the company's thoughts/desires to the customer.

Too often good salesmen are promoted to the marketing department, with predictable results.

Do not let Mike or others talk you out of this project. But do read their advice.

Mean while google Neil Heckt and AADE. Selling home brew test equipment can be done.

Dan

Call it "HP 4145B"? ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs